Oscillating backstop for right angle delivery



J. P. LOPEZ 7 3,079,150 oscnm'rmc BACKSTOP FOR RIGHT ANGLEDELIVERY Feb. 26, 1963 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

F'iled March 18, 1960 M bfk 3 r' zlami Feb. 26, 1963 J. P. LOPEZ 3,0 9,

OSCILLATING BACKSTOP FOR RIGHT ANGLE DELIVERY Filed March 18, 1960 4' Sheets-Sheet 3 Feb. 26, 1963 J. P. LOPEZ 3,079,150

OSCILLATING BACKSTOP FOR RIGHT ANGLE DELIVERY Filed March 18, 1960 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR. JO/M/ 1. 10/ 52 United States Patent 3,079,150 GSCILLATENG BACKSTGP FGR RIGHT ANGLE DELIVERY John P. Lopez, Westfield, N..l., assignor to Universal Corrugated Box Machinery Corporation, a corporation of New Jersey Filed Mar. 18, 1960, Ser. No. 16,005 3 Claims. (Cl. 27169) This invention relates to the art of sheet conveying, stacking and delivering equipment, and more particularly to an equipment for forming uniform stacks from substantially rigid sheets successively discharged onto an intermittently driven conveyor.

As conducive to an understanding of the invention, it is noted that where an equipment is provided such as of the type shown in Patent No. 2,506,550, in which sheets are successively discharged from a feeding conveyor onto a transfer conveyor and thereupon advanced by said transfer conveyor in direction at right angles to the direction of discharge thereon, in order for the sheets to be discharged onto the transfer conveyor without jamming it is necessary that the backstop against which the sheets abut as they are discharged be sufficiently spaced from the discharge end of the feeding conveyor.

If the distance between the backstop and such discharge end is too small, then the sheets will jam, and if the distance is too great the resultant stack built up will be irregular, with the result that when the stack is subsequently advanced by the transfer conveyor it will be ditficult for a workman to handle the same. This is especially so if the stack is to be tied up into bundles, for if one or more of the sheets should jut out from the main body of the stack, the stack must either be reassembled, with attendant loss of time, or if the irregular stack is merely tied, the jutting sheets may be broken.

It is accordingly among the objects of the invention to provide a backstop for a transfer conveyor of the above type, which is relatively simple in construction and not likely to become deranged even with long use, and may readily be adjusted depending upon the dimensions of the sheets to be stacked, and which will provide adequate space with respect to the discharge end of the feeding conveyor so that sheets may be discharged onto the transfer conveyor without likelihood of jamming, yet will form even and uniform stacks of sheets on such transfer conveyor.

According to the invention, these objects are accomplished by the arrangement and combination of elements hereinafter described and more particularly recited in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings in which is shown one or more of various possible embodiments of the several features of the invention,

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the equipment,

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line 2-2 of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a View taken along line 33 of FIG. 2,

FIG. 4 is a view taken along line 44 of FIG. 1 with parts broken away,

3,?9,l50 Patented Feb. 26, 1963 tinuously driven endless belt conveyor 11 on which the sheets, which may be of corrugated paper board, are discharged to be advanced thereby. The conveyor 11 has an associated gate 12 extending transversely thereacross and an intermittently driven transfer conveyor 13 lies in a horizontal plane below that of the upper run 14 of conveyor 11 and is designed to advance the sheets discharged thereon in direction at right angles to the direction of feed of the conveyor 11.

The conveyor 11 will receive the sheets from any suitable source which, when the sheets are in the form of folded box blanks, could be a folding machine, and will discharge them onto the conveyor 13 to form a stack containing a preselected number of sheets and the stack will then be moved by the conveyor 13 to a take-off point.

As shown in FIG. 1, the conveyor 13 desirably comprises a substantially rectangular frame, which has parallel side and end beams 16 and 17. Rotatably mounted between the side beams 16 are a plurality of spaced parallel rollers 18, which may be driven in the same direction in any suitable manner such as shown in said Patent No. 2,506,550.

Afiixed to the side beam 16 adjacent the outlet end of conveyor 11, and rising therefrom, is a vertical backing plate 19, which extends longitudinally of said conveyor 13 and the upper edge 21 of which is in a plane below the plane of the upper run 14 of conveyor 11. The lower edge of the backing plate 19 is desirably notched as at 20 to accommodate the rollers 18.

Desirably, an idler roller 22 is positioned between the discharge end of conveyor 11 and the upper edge 21 of backing plate 19, and rising slightly above said upper edge 21, to insure that the sheets discharged from conveyor 11 will not jam against the backing plate.

According to the invention, an oscillating backstop assembly 23 is associated with the conveyor 13. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 6, the backstop assembly 23 comprises a pair of upstanding standards 24 straddling the end beams 17 of the frame.

Secured to the inner surface of each of the standards is a bracket 25 which has an inwardly extending horizontal ledge 26 at its upper end. Secured to the ledges 26 are the respective ends of a Z-shapcd beam 27 which extends transversely over the rollers 18. A second L-shaped beam 28 positioned beneath beam 27 also extends transversely over the rollers 18, being secured at its ends to the standards 24, said two beams 27 and 28 and said standards 24 thus forming a rigid assembly.

Means are provided movably to mount the assembly 23 on the and away from the backstop beams 17 so as to be movable toward discharge end of conveyor 11..

a stud shaft 34 and tatably mounting a stud shaft 35.

Rotatably mounted on the stud shafts 34 and 36 on the inner side of the associated standard is a roller 37 and a sprocket Wheel 33. The rollers 37 each have a 43 and hence movement of the backstop assembly along end beams 17.

advance To this end, each of the standards 24 on its outer surface mounts a bearing block 47 which notatably mounts a shaft 48 that extends transversely across the rollers 18, being supported between its ends on bearings 49 mounted on'brackets 51 depending from'the horizontal leg 52 of beam 27. The ends of the shaft'48 each mount a sprocket wheel -4, connected by sprocket chain 55 to the sprocket wheel 44, and one end of the shaft 48 mounts a crank 56 to facilitate rotation of said shfit.

Desirably, a housing 57 is secured to the outer surface of each of the standards to cover the sprocket wheels 4-4 and 54 and the sprocket chain 55.

Afiixed to each of the ends of the upper beam 27 and also to substantially the center thereof, and extending beyond said beam 27 toward the backing plate 19, are parallel plates 61, 62 and 63, which have associated bearings 64 rotatably to mount a horizontal rod 66, said rod lying in a plane below the plane of the horizontal leg 67 of beam 27. Pivotally mounted on the rod 66 adjacent each of its ends is an arm 68 and a pair of arms 69 are pivotally mounted on said rod adjacent the plate 62.

The arms s3 and 69 are secured as by welding to the rear of a substantially rectangular backstop plate 71 which, as shown in FIG. 1, extends parallel to the side beams 16 of the frame and has a plurality of notches '72 in its lower edge to accommodate the rollers 18'.

Means are provided to oscillate said backstop plate 71 about said rod 66. To this end, a support plate 75 is provided secured at one end as by welding to the beam 28 and extending outwardly therefrom in a vertical plane.

Mounted on the plate 75 is an actuator unit, illustratively an air cylinder 76, the end of the plunger of which has pivoted thereto one end of a link 77, the other end of which is positioned between the arms 69 and pivoted thereto as at 78.

With the air cylinder de-energized, the backstop plate 71 will extend in a vertical plane and, as shown in PEG. 2, is positioned by movement of the assembly 23 with respect to the backing plate 19 so that the distance therebetween is but slightly greater than the width of the sheets to be discharged onto the conveyor 13.

' When the air cylinder is energized, the backstop plate 71 will be oscillated between the forward and retracted positions shown in FIG. 2.

As sheets are successively advanced by conveyor 11, they will be discharged or ejected past the normally open gate 12 and their leading edges will abut against the oscillating backstop plate 71 which will pat the sheets against the backing plate 19, forming an even stack.

When the stack has attained a predetermined height, the gate 12 is closed to stop further discharge of sheets onto the conveyor 13, and thereupon the rollers 18 are energized, and at the same time the air cylinder 76 is set to retain the backstop plate 71 in its retracted position shown in FIG. 2 so that the backstop plate is completely spaced from the leading edges L of the stack of sheets.

Due to the energization of the rollers 18 of the transfer conveyor 13, the stack of sheets will be moved away from the discharge end of the feeding conveyor 11' onto a suitable receiving conveyor (not shown) from which, by reason of the uniformity of the stack thus formed, they may readily be removed by a workman for subsequent processing.

With the construction above described, sheets may be discharged at a relatively high rate of speed onto the transfer conveyor 13, with assurance that a uniform stack will be formed that may readily be handled by a workman.

As the operation of the equipment may be automatically controlled by suitable timing circuits such as shown in said Patent No. 2,506,550 and which would be readily apparent to one skilled in the art, and as such circuits tonrn no part of this invention, they will not be described.

As many changes could be made in the above constnuction, and many apparently widely difierent embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope of the claims, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense. 7 v I Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. Equipment for forming stacks of sheet material comprising a normally stationary transfer conveyor, 21 feeding conveyor having a discharge end, said feeding conveyor extending at right angles to said transfer conveyor successively to discharge said sheets thereon, means to interrupt discharge of sheets from said feeding conveyor onto said transfer conveyor, a backing member extending longitudinally of said transfer conveyor adjacent the discharge end of said feeding conveyor and below the horizontal plane of the latter, a backstop extending longitudinally of said transfer conveyor and transversely spaced from the backing member so that at least the lower edge thereof is normallylocated at -a distance from said backing member substantially equal to the width of the stack to be formed, said sheets being adapted to abut against said backstop upon discharge onto said transfer conveyor, and means when the discharge of sheets onto said first conveyor is interrupted to eifect pivotal movement of said backstop to move the lower end thereof to :a retracted position away from said predetermined position and to effect movement of said transfer conveyor to move the stack of sheets thereon away from said discharge end in direction at right angles to the direction of discharge onto said transfer conveyor.

2. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which means are provided to efiect oscillatory movement of said backstop in direction at right angles to the direction of movement of said transfer conveyor and over a relatively small range of movement as compared to the normal Spacing between said discharge endrand said backstop.

3. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which said backstop comprises an elongated substantially rectangular plate, means are provided pivotally to mount said plate on an horizontal axis extending parallel to the path of movement of said transfer conveyor and the means to effect movement of the backstop to said retracted position is operatively connected to said backstop and extends at right angles thereto.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,865,308 Evans et a1. June 28, 1932 2,606,669 Morrison Aug. 12, 1952 2,617,647 Davis Nov. 11, 1952 2,693,885 Iunco Nov. 9, 1954 2,789,709 Shields Apr. 23, 1957 2,816,762 Donald 7 Dec. 17, 1957 2,825,555 Russell Mar. 4, 1958 

1. EQUIPMENT FOR FORMING STACKS OF SHEET MATERIAL COMPRISING A NORMALLY STATIONARY TRANSFER CONVEYOR, A FEEDING CONVEYOR HAVING A DISCHARGE END, SAID FEEDING CONVEYOR EXTENDING AT RIGHT ANGLES TO SAID TRANSFER CONVEYOR SUCCESSIVELY TO DISCHARGE SAID SHEETS THEREON, MEANS TO INTERRUPT DISCHARGE OF SHEETS FROM SAID FEEDING CONVEYOR ONTO SAID TRANSFER CONVEYOR, A BACKING MEMBER EXTENDING LONGITUDINALLY OF SAID TRANSFER CONVEYOR ADJACENT THE DISCHARGE END OF SAID FEEDING CONVEYOR AND BELOW THE HORIZONTAL PLANE OF THE LATTER, A BACKSTOP EXTENDING LONGITUDINALLY OF SAID TRANSFER CONVEYOR AND TRANSVERSELY SPACED FROM THE BACKING MEMBER SO THAT AT LEAST THE LOWER EDGE THEREOF IS NORMALLY LOCATED AT A DISTANCE FROM SAID BACKING MEMBER SUBSTANTIALLY EQUAL TO THE WIDTH OF THE STACK TO BE FORMED, SAID SHEETS BEING ADAPTED TO ABUT AGAINST SAID BACKSTOP UPON DISCHARGE ONTO SAID TRANSFER CONVEYOR, AND MEANS WHEN THE DISCHARGE OF SHEETS ONTO SAID FIRST CONVEYOR IS INTERRUPTED TO EFFECT PIVOTAL MOVEMENT OF SAID BACKSTOP TO MOVE THE LOWER END THEREOF TO A RETRACTED POSITION AWAY FROM SAID PREDETERMINED POSITION AND TO EFFECT MOVEMENT OF SAID TRANSFER CONVEYOR TO MOVE THE STACK OF SHEETS THEREON AWAY FROM SAID DISCHARGE END IN DIRECTION AT RIGHT ANGLES TO THE DIRECTION OF DISCHARGE ONTO SAID TRANSFER CONVEYOR. 